I’d not heard of Keith Luger before stumbling across this book at a magazine stand outside the mercado in Mazatlán. And despite the Alglo-ish name, Luger was apparently an important figure in Spanish pulp circles in the 1950s and 1960s, with many westerns in particular to his credit. The front cover art for Ases del Oeste 381 presents a rather James Bondish tableau of sexy, partially undressed woman and cool guy in back tie holding a martini glass.

Monday, December 5, 2011

[Barcelona : Ediciones B, 2009. Traducción : Luis Murillo Fort. Originally published in 1967 by the Hearst Corp. as Six Graves to Munich, under the pseudonym Mario Cleri].

style ***

substance **

collectibility *

A happy memento from a recent visit to the Guadalajara International Book Fair, Puzo’s Sies Tumbas en Munich sports a tasty neo-pulp cover which depicts a pistol brandishing tough guy in the foreground, along with two femmes fatales, all presented in garish colors, heavy on the yellows, bright reds and greens. It’s early Puzo, and though I’ve not read the book myself, I’m told it’s actually a pretty good story, a revenge tale which begins in WWII and takes place mostly in the 1950s in Germany.